Projected pre-spring depth chart: Special teams

We’re now just three days away from the start of spring football practice, which begins on March 21 for the Houston Cougars. As we near that day will continue taking a look at the squad heading into spring ball. Today we continue our pre-spring depth chart projections with a look at the special teams.

Remember that just like the offense and defense the last two days, the depth chart doesn’t include anyone not on campus (i.e. true freshmen) since they won’t arrive until the fall.

Here’s what I’ve come up with:

Placekicking: If there’s anybody that has a stranglehold on a position on this team (aside from Charles Sims at running back and D.J. Hayden at corner), it’s senior Matt Hogan at kicker. The Keller product has accomplished a lot in three seasons for the Cougars. Last year he set the NCAA record for consecutive PATs made in a season (78), was 91-of-92 on PAT attempts and 13-of-17 on field goals. He did see a streak of 14 consecutivefield goals inside of 40 yards come to an end, missing two from inside that distance, but it doesn’t appear to be cause for concern. Helping Hogan going into his senior season is the fact that the entire field goal team returns: Hogan, long snapper Brandon Hartson, holder Crawford Jones and all the guards, tackles and tight ends as well. Should Hogan be unavailable for any reason, Kyle Bullard, a walk-on from Boerne Champion, would likely get the opportunity to fill in. Bullard walked-on as a true freshman a season ago, but did not see any playing time.

Richie Leone is back to handle punting duties (UH athletics)

Punting/kickoffs– Punter Richie Leone enters his junior season and will be the guy once again for the Cougars. He started the season well but appeared to struggle late in the season and his per punt average actually dipped a tick from his freshman season (41.4 yards per punt in 2010, 41.1 in 2011), but he’s expecting to bounce back and improve that mark this season. Leone will also be the primary kickoff specialist since Jordan Mannisto is now out of football eligibility. Leone has plenty of kickoff experience, having booted 59 kicks as a freshman and 35 kicks last year, averaging 64.1 yards per kickoff in that span. When Leone needs a breather, look for Hogan to get some opportunities to kick off. On the punting side, Sam Martin — a walk-on from Texas City who was on the squad as a true freshman last year — would be next in line if Leone were to be unavailable. Also note a new addition: Logan Piper, who is a true freshman pitcher for the baseball team, will be available for punting duties as well, according to coach Tony Levine.

Snapper/holder: Brandon Hartson has been as consistent as they come, serving as the full-time long snapper a year ago and no bad snaps throughout the year. He’s back and so is redshirt freshman Nolan Frese, who was a highly-rated long-snapper coming into UH out of high school. Frese will continue to compete with Hartson, but I’d expect Hartson to continue his duties as the main guy. Crawford Jones, who will be competing at quarterback, will continue his holder duties. He was the holder on all field goals and PATs last season and will continue those duties again. It will actually be his third season in the role, he did it for part of the season in 2010. Should another holder be needed, I’d expect David Piland to get a look since it has been convention in recent years for a quarterback to serve in that role (Case Keenum served as a holder under Levine for a period of time when Levine was special teams coach).

Kick return/punt return: This is an area that I believe will be pretty fluid throughout camp. In the kick return game, speedy receiver Isaiah Sweeney and defensive back Jeffery Lewis both have experience, so they will certainly get looks. Lewis has spent a lot of time as the secondary return guy, leading the way for Tyron Carrier and Sweeney has returned a kick or two in their day as well. In the punt return game, Damian Payne is the favorite going into camp because he gained some experience in the role last year after transferring from Utah, and he showed some ability — he returned a punt 76 yards for a touchdown in UH’s win over Tulane last November — and returned five punts overall for the season. Behind him I’m projecting Dewayne Peace for now. It was safety Kent Brooks that saw most of the time at punt returner when Patrick Edwards was going through his early season struggles last year, but I don’t think Brooks will get a ton of time back there unless the staff is simply worried about someone being able to catch a punt, which Brooks can do. Peace got some looks in the punt return game in practice last season and will get some looks again this spring.

Here’s the wild-card though: In the last four seasons, the Cougars have used two of their most explosive offensive players in the kick and punt return games and they will look at a myriad of candidates, a couple of which fall into that category, to possibly succeed Carrier and Edwards. Levine said that players that will get a hard look as candidates in the return game (in addition to the guys mentioned above): running back Charles Sims, receiver Daniel Spencer, receiver Casey Martin and receiver Wayne Beadle.

So keep those names in mind as we move forward in camp.

Feel free to share thoughts, opinions, comments on my take on the lineup.